Like others have said I really like the look of all of these apps. When I opened my old phone I used to feel stressed or sad, but when I look at anything on an e-ink display it’s just so much more relaxing. It feels like it’s actually part of the world around me, like looking at a newspaper or a note card, rather than this large rectangular flashlight pointed directly at my face. As for the individual apps:
Alarm: I love how none of the alarm sounds are intrusive and whenever an alarm goes off I feel like I notice it slowly rather than immediately. I wish that it was possible to schedule recurring alarms on different time scales (for example, once a month to remind me to pay rent), and I wish there was also a countdown timer and count-up stopwatch function.
Calendar: I like that it’s able to send reminders to the home screen. I wish that it had the capability to sync with some kind of calendar app I could also use on my laptop. I wish there were options to set up reminders for more than 5 minutes before something (5 minutes isn’t super useful if it takes me 30 minutes to walk to the place I need to remember to go, or if I want to be reminded that something is happening the day before)
Camera: I find the low resolution camera really cozy, and whenever I look at a photo I’ve taken on a colour display there’s something I find compelling about that lower resolution. I wish there was a faster way to enter the camera app (for example, from the little pop up menu where the flashlight and settings buttons are) when I needed to snap a photo quickly.
Chess: I love that you included a simple game and I look forward to getting back into chess cause I used to play a bit when I was a kid and am now quite bad at it. I wish there was a 2 player option where I could pass the phone back and forth with a friend, or play against myself. Also are there any plans to consider, say, a Solitaire or Sudoku app? I could imagine both of those looking beautiful on an e-ink display.
E-reader: I use this app a lot because it is a perfect replacement for how I was previously using social media. It’s really easy to redirect the reflexive way my thumb used to gravitate (when I had a free moment or didn’t know what to do) to the tumblr or bluesky apps on my old phone – and click on the e-reader instead. I can load up nonfiction books and still honour the underlying impulse to want to learn about the world in these spare moments, but with content that has built-in logical break points. I do wish the text could be darker though, as it can be harder to see in some lighting than other apps on the phone. I’ve found that if I click the pop up menu button quickly twice it refreshes the display and makes the text more visible, which is a fine workaround but has to be done on every single page. I also wish I could turn off justified margins, because the large spaces between words can make the text hard to read if I want the text to be anything other than the smallest size.
Maps: This is a really important inclusion because the need for maps was one of the biggest things that made me hesitate to give up my smartphone, and I’ve talked to at least one other friend who wants to give up her smartphone but has the exact same hesitation. I got my first iPhone at the same time in my life where I started navigating the world by myself, so I’m completely useless at getting myself from place to place without an app in my pocket. If you want my opinion, I think making this app as functional as possible should be a priority of the development team, and that functionality should be featured heavily in advertising for the device. Right now, the look of the maps don’t feel super at home on the e-ink display and the map is hard to read. Also, for me, without access to public transit information I don’t use this app because I don’t drive. I would also like the option to save locations like my friends’ houses or spots I want to visit. Currently I have sideloaded HERE We Go instead, but I’d prefer to use an app that was actually designed for this device.
Meditation: this is another app I use a lot and I really like the choice to include it. I wish you could set a different sound for the interval chimes, that was separate from the end chime. I also wish there was a way to remember what setup for interval chimes I like at different lengths of meditation. If I’m meditating for 60 minutes, I like a chime at 30. If I’m meditating for 20 minutes, I like a chime at 10. Currently I have to set this up manually every time, especially if I’ve used a different length since my last meditation.
Music: I love the intentionality of having to download albums onto my phone to listen to them. Unfortunately, without more organization options, I don’t really use this app much. I’d like to be able to sort music by album and artist without having to make each one its own playlist. Even if I had to do this by hand through the desktop app I probably would. It would also be great if I could organize playlists from the desktop app instead of just from the device. Also – audiobooks! I’d love it if audiobooks could be recognized in their own section of the music app, and for the app to remember my place in an audiobook.
Weather: I love how easy it is to access the weather from the pop-up menu. But think I noticed sometimes that the forecast in the pop up menu isn’t always the most up to date? I may have imagined that though.
I hope that wasn’t too much more wishlist than love. Overall, I’ve been using this device as my only phone for a little over a month and I’m really happy with the decision to make the switch.
LOL
So PLEASE fix this in the coming update, along with the 5000 other issues that have been brought up on the forum.